Before Every Release: See Your WordPress Site as Every Customer

Why do updates break things only members see?

Because most people check an update as admin, and the admin view hides exactly the problems members run into.

You update a plugin, click around as admin, and everything looks fine. Two days later a Gold member emails: their course is locked. A Silver member says the upgrade button is gone. A new customer couldn’t check out at all.

None of that showed up for you, because you were looking as the admin. Admins can see everything, so admins are the worst roles to test with.

Admins can see everything, so admins are the worst roles to test with.

On a membership site or store, every release changes the site for several kinds of people at once. The only way to know it works is to look as each of them, every time. This post gives you a checklist that takes about 15 minutes, once the setup from our main guide is in place.

What counts as a release?

Anything that can change what a member sees or can do. On a typical membership site or store, that means:

• Updates: WordPress core, your membership or LMS plugin, WooCommerce, your theme, and any plugin that touches login, checkout or content.
• Content rules: a new membership level, a changed access rule, a moved or dripped lesson.
• Offers: a sale, a new coupon, a price change, a new product or plan.
• Design changes: a new menu, page template or account page.
• Settings: payment gateway, email, caching or security plugin changes.

If you’re not sure whether a change counts, it does. Fifteen minutes is cheaper than a week of support emails.

Not sure if a change counts? It does. Fifteen minutes beats a week of support emails.

What should I check before every WordPress update?

Check the site as admin, as each member level, as a lapsed member and as a brand-new visitor. It takes about 15 minutes. Test on staging first if you have it, then run the same list on the live site right after the release. Open your saved Workspace so every role is signed in, side by side.

Before you release (2 minutes)

• Note what’s changing and which roles it touches
• Open your testing Workspace: admin, each member level, a lapsed member
• Take a quick look at each tab so you know what “normal” looks like

As admin (2 minutes)

• Make the change or run the update
• Check settings saved and no new warnings show in the dashboard

As each member level (5 minutes)

• Refresh each member’s tab: dashboard, account page and menu look right
• Open a page they should see, and one they shouldn’t (paste the URL into each tab)
• Check the upgrade prompt or locked-content message on content above their level
• If the release touched pricing or coupons, check the price each member is shown

As a lapsed member (2 minutes)

• Paid content is still locked
• The renewal message shows and the renew button works

As a brand-new visitor (4 minutes)

• Open a Temporary Identity (right-click a tab and choose Duplicate into new Temporary Identity), so you start with no cookies
• Sales and pricing pages show the right offer
• Sign up, check out and log in for the first time, start to finish
• The welcome email arrives

After you release

• Run the member and visitor checks again on the live site
• Close the Temporary Identity, and save the Workspace for next time

How do I make this fast enough to run every time?

Keep every role signed in and save the setup. The checklist only works if it’s quick enough to run every time, and these two things keep it quick:

• Every role stays signed in. With Ghost Browser, each role lives in its own Identity, side by side in one window. No logging out, no incognito windows, no switching back and forth.
• The setup is saved. Your testing Workspace reopens with every role signed in where you left it. Fifteen minutes of checking, zero minutes of logging in.

Fifteen minutes of checking, zero minutes of logging in.

Agencies can keep one Workspace per client site and run the same list after every round of plugin updates. Plugin developers can run it across WordPress’s built-in roles before each version ships.

New to the setup? Start with our guide: How to Test Every User Role on a WordPress Membership Site at Once. Need one role to look brand new again without signing out the others? See how to reset one login without logging out.

Frequently asked questions

Should I turn on automatic plugin updates? For plugins that touch login, checkout or content, many site owners update by hand so they can run this checklist right after. Automatic updates are easier to live with for plugins members never see.

How do I test checkout without paying? Use your payment gateway’s test mode on staging. On a live site, use a 100% off coupon for the test sign-up, then delete the test order.

Can I hand this checklist to my team or a client? Yes. Copy it into your team’s release notes or ticket template, and add the roles your site uses.

Will my Chrome extensions and DevTools still work? Yes. Ghost Browser is built on Chromium, so DevTools and Chrome extensions work as they do in Chrome.

Does Ghost Browser run on Mac, Windows and Linux? Yes. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.

Try it before your next update

Download Ghost Browser free. The free plan includes three Identities: enough for your admin, one member and a brand-new visitor.

Download Ghost Browser